Good readers VISUALIZE!

In Reading Language Arts, we are working on one of my favorite comprehension skills: visualizing. To visualize means to make a mental picture in your head while you read (or listen). To begin our lessons this week, I read the book “In the Tall, Tall Grass” aloud to the class. I did not show them the pictures, and they had to visualize what was happening in the story. Afterwards, we paired up (for the most part) and students were given a paper with text from each page of the book, but no pictures. They had to read their assigned page, and draw their visualizations. Here are some snapshots of our class working, and then the final products.

We shared our visualizations with the class, and compared our pictures to the actual illustrations in the book. Overall, what we visualized was pretty close to what we actually saw 🙂

Today, we talked about how visualizations often times change when we are reading. To prove this point, I read the poem “My Neighbor’s Dog is Purple” aloud to the class. The first two stanzas describe a purple dog with large, green eyes and a scary demeanor:

My neighbor’s dog is purple,
It’s eyes are large and green.
Its tail is nearly endless,
The longest I have seen!

My neighbor’s dog is quiet,
It does not bark one bit.
But when my neighbor’s dog is near,
I feel afraid of it.

After reading these first two stanzas, the class drew their first visualization. We regrouped on the carpet and they listened to the last stanza: